CREATIVE THINKING AMONG TODAYS MUSLIMS: BARRIERS AND

BREAKTHROUGHS ((Edited Copy))

Jamal Ahmed Badi

Abstract:
Creative thinking and problem solving is of extreme concerns in the Western research
for the last half century. The findings of these researches are being implemented and
applied in all walks of life: education, administration, leadership, etc. Not only that, it
is used in political mobilization, advertisement, propaganda, mind-leading,
influencing attitudes through perceptual manipulation and even as a powerful tool to
promote Globalization throughout the whole World.
Compared to the above and by looking at the situation in the Muslim World
today, we find awkwardness, backwardness, and narrow-mindedness. Many
intellectuals who observed such dangerous negative phenomenon raised questions and
inquiries. What has happened to the Muslims of today? What are the reasons behind
all these traits and qualities? Why Muslims who are considered as one of the
builders of civilizations -are no longer creative and initiative? How to reactivate
creative potential in Muslims so as to revive the vibrant Islamic Thought and
reestablish the Islamic Civilization?
This paper aims to explore the external barriers and obstacles that hinder
creative thinking among todays Muslims. Environmental, Educational, and
Intellectual barriers will be analyzed and discussed thoroughly. Ways, means and
strategies to overcome such barriers will be highlighted. An analytical and critical
approach will be used in dealing with issues related to the topic. Both inductive and
abductive reasoning will be combined in discussing the above-mentioned barriers.
Views of some contemporary Muslim scholars such as Malik Bin Nabi, Iqbal and
Abdul Karim Bakkar, to name a few, will be introduced and examined.
It is of significance and importance to relate and compare findings with the Western
perspective, which had been established and improved for the last three decades. The
researcher will include his input based on his experience in teaching the subject of
Creative Thinking at IIUM for the last eight years.
It is highly expected that the findings of this paper will be beneficial to the Muslim
community and it is hoped that it will contribute to the development of the
Contemporary Islamic Thought which possibly can in turn- contribute to the
development of the Muslim (Ummah).
The researcher will use the Western research findings on creativity with
special regard to environmental, cultural, and educational barriers to creativity, as a
unit of analysis to evaluate the situation in the Muslim World. This is due to following
reasons:

The author is an associate professor at the Department of General Studies, International Islamic
University Malaysia.

1. The accumulation of research done on creativity in the West for the last three
decades or more;
2. Major similarities in educational system, in both the Muslim World and the
West to a certain extent, where most if not all the Muslim countries adopted
UNESCO educational settings after decolonization.
However, the researcher will not use the above said criteria in a passive and
submissive sense, especially in discussing cultural and environmental barriers, where
there are more differences than similarities. The findings of the Western researches
will be thoroughly examined in their application to the Muslim context.
In an attempt to overcome these barriers, the paper will introduce the views of
some eminent Muslim scholars and examine these views in the light of the papers
findings as a way of concluding and reaching the final resolutions.
1) Introduction:
The early writings on creativity in the West focused on barriers to creativity.
James Adams was one of the authors who wrote on this issue and his book entitled
"Conceptual Blockbusting"1 can be considered among the first efforts. According to
Adams, barriers to creativity can be generally classified into perceptual, emotional,
cultural, environmental, intellectual and expressive. Based on his view, one has to
break through all these barriers in order to conceptualize freely and to be creative.
Gary Davis who wrote 20 years later classifies barriers into internal and
external: "Barriers are blocks, internal or external, that either inhibit creative thinking
and inspiration or else prevents innovative ideas from being accepted and
implemented. Most barriers result from learning. They may originate with one's
family, peers, community, or educational environment, or from others in the culture or
business organizations."2 Davis stresses:
"Because of their insecurities, well-learned habits, or an unsupportive or even
repressive environment, most people do not use the creative abilities with which they
were born".3
Barriers according to him are habit and learning, rules and traditions,
perceptual, cultural, emotional, and resource barriers (shortage of people, money,
time, supplies, or information).
1

Addison-Wesley, USA, 1974, 76, 79, 86 and 1993.

Gary Davis: Barriers to Creativity and Creative Attitudes, Encyclopedia of Creativity, 1999,
ACADEMIC PRESS, vol.1. p. 165.
3
Creativity for Ever. P. 18. The author lists the ten barriers to thinking as pinpointed by (Von Oech,
1983): A Whack on the Side of the Head. See p.p. 27-31. He elaborates on the tenth barrier "selfsquelcher". Pp. 31-35.
2

Although he considers Learning and Habit, as necessary capabilities for

humankind in directing our daily behavior, however, they are the most obvious
barriers; they both are a blessing and a curse. He explains: "The most obvious barriers
to creative thinking and innovation simply is habit our well learned ways of
thinking and responding. It begins early. We learn "correct" responses, routines, and
patterns of behavior. We learn language habits and conceptual categories. We learn
"the way things have always been done" and "the way things are supposed to be
done." Over the years it becomes difficult to see and create new possibilities to
break away from or suppress our creativity- squelching habits."4
Next come Rules and Regulations: "As with learning and habit, social
groups from one's family to educational, corporate, national, and international
groups could not function without the rules, regulations, policies, and traditions that
guide personal, social, and institutional conduct. However, "guide" often means
restrict, inhibit, or prohibit."5
It is clear that barriers are of two types: Internal and external. However, this paper will
concentrate on discussing and analyzing external barriers, and finding ways and
means to overcome them, for the following reasons:
1. External barriers are more influential for they affect the individual as well as
the whole community.
2. Overcoming external barriers to creativity will lead to promoting creative
culture and can help individuals to overcome their internal barriers.
Based on previous quotations taken from studies and research work done in this
regard, cultural, educational and environmental barriers are the main and the most
influential barriers that hinder creativity. In the following discussion the paper will
analyze, elucidate and highlight these barriers one by one.
Cultural Barriers

4
5

Gary, Encyclopedia of Creativity, ibid, p.166.

Ibid. p.167.

Culture here is regarded as a broader aspect of the social environment. According to

Gary Davis again: "Cultural barriers amount to social influence, expectations, and
conformity pressures which are based on social and institutional norms. Cultural
blocks include habit and learning, rules and traditions, and more. They include
conforming to the ways we think others expect us to behave and a fear of being
different. The result is a loss of individuality and creativity." 6
He gives the following examples: the traditionally perceived role of females,
we learn not to ask too many questions, and that fantasy is a waste of time, and if
cooperation is an accepted cultural or institutional goal, many people will temper their
creative ideas in order to "fit in" and ignoring monumental cultural differences in
creative attitudes and personality, creative productivity, creative opportunity, and
general self-actualization where the culture itself becomes the greatest cultural barrier.
There are differences between cultures in terms of importance and
significance given to creativity. The more a culture allows, promotes, and encourages
creativity the more this will influence attitudes of that culture citizens to become
creative. Dacey says:
Cultures vary in the relative importance given to creativity. Also, Wonder and
Blake (1992) argue that the Eastern view centers on artistic, poetic, and
everyday life domains of creative activity because people can draw upon their
own experiences in these domains7
Islam in this sense highly values and encourages deep thinking,
contemplation, reflection and pondering. The Quran used more than eight
terminologies for thinking while calling and encouraging all its readers to exercise it.
This is mentioned in hundreds of verses. Both the Quran and Sunnah used more than
fifteen different thinking styles in communicating their message. Prophet Muhammad
(peace be upon him) highly recommended innovating something which is good and
beneficial to the community.8

Gary. Ibid p. 168.

Handbook of Creativity pp.340-341
8
Badi, Jamal and Tajdin, Mustapha: Creative Thinking: An Islamic Perspective. IIUM Research Centre
Publications. Second Edition, Jan 2005. Chapter one.
7

A culture may encourage creativity in specific domains but not in other ones.
Culture encourages creativity in some situations and for some topics but discourages
it for others. For example, Mari and Karayanni (1983) observed that many Arab
students responses to the question, What would happen if mules and other animals
which help us plow the farm cease to exist? were elaborate and original! However, a
religious question What would happen if worship places cease to exist? yield
shallow responses or those that rejected the question.9
Mari and Karayanni argued that in Arab cultures males tend to perform better
than females on creativity tasks. They attributed this observation to females
submissive social role, limited occupational choices, and/or limited schooling
opportunities in Arab culture. Differential opportunities for schooling may be
particularly important to consider when examining gender-based differences in
creativity because schools familiarize students with testing situations.10
In my opinion, what Mari and Karayanni attributed the Arab students
shallow responses when asked about worship places seems to suggest that creativity is
not linked to religion in many Muslim countries. There are among teachers who teach
religious subjects who believe that there is no link between Islam and creativity to the
extent that some of them think that Islam is anti-creativity. I was told by some
Muslim school teachers participants in the 8th International Conference on Thinking
in Singapore in June 1997 that, even though they were willing to promote and teach
Creative Thinking at their universities, the most objection and opposition to the
project was surprisingly coming from religious oriented lecturers.
A culture may favor a gender over another in terms of educational opportunities
and setting the role they ought to play in the community. Mari and Karayanni
(1983) have argued that in Arab cultures males tend to perform better than females on
creativity tasks, which may be attributed to females submissive social role, limited
occupational

choices,

and/or

limited

schooling

opportunities.

Differential

opportunities for schooling may be particularly important to consider when examining

Handbook of Creativity P. 342

Ibid Pp. 343-344.

10

gender-based differences in creativity because schools familiarize students with

testing situations.11
It is sadly true that females have much less educational opportunities in the
Muslim World, where being educated may not be regarded as part of their human
rights. Many recent International institutes findings and statistics prove that this fact
still stands true until today! According to UN statistics, in 2003, an estimated 44
million adult Arab women were illiterate. 12 In other Muslim countries the situation is
more or less the same. UN statistics division data shows that the percentage of
illiteracy among females in Bangladesh is up to 80%.
This can be looked at as part of the female role in many Muslim cultures
and subcultures. In some Muslim communities females are raised up to be ready for
getting married one day and take care of their children, husband and home.
Unfortunately, this image is being promoted through media and movies as a source of
entertainment! However, there are many other related factors behind such disaster
some of which are the following:
1. Poverty where there are millions of Muslims who live in a status under the
poverty line. In rural areas family prefer to send their male children to school
and request female children to stay home and help the family to survive.
2. Wars and political instability in some Muslim countries such as Palestine.
3. Insufficient planning and lack of schools and colleges in many rural areas in
some Muslim countries where it is easier for male students to go and study in
the city or town.
As part of the culture, language plays a very important role in promoting
creativity. Modes of expressions, choices of terms, the way of understanding or
looking at the world, and even definitions of specific concepts are all influenced and
shaped through language. In this respect mastering more than one language is
considered a blessing.
Related to the effects of culture on creativity, described earlier, is the
channeling influence of language on creativity, Whorf (1956) proposed that language
shapes thought. Language structures categories and expresses a cultures
understanding of the world (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). Language as a vehicle of
culture can therefore be expected to shape creativity. Several studies have assessed
the effect that language has on creativity by contrasting monolingual and bilingual
groups. A recent review of 24 studies - (but not including all studies) -concluded that
a majority of the studies show a positive link between bilingualism and creativity. 13
The Worldview related to a culture may cause it either to promote or hinder
creativity. In addition to cultures role in channeling creativity toward certain
domains or social groups, culture may influence the overall level of creative activity.
Creativity may be stimulated or hindered by cultural features such as worldview and
the value placed on conformity or tradition.
11

Ibid Pp. 343-344.

www.escwa.org.lb/gsp. See also alarming facts at: www.alesco.org.
13
Ibid, P 344. The article states that this did not occur consistently
12

Worldview refers to a cultures broad conception of the nature of the world

and peoples role in the world (Sadowsky, Maguire, Johnson, Ngumba, & Kohles,
1994). For example, the U.S. worldview has been characterized, in part, as
emphasizing individualism, a work ethic of accomplishment and achievement, and a
belief in progress and a better future (Spindler & Spindler, 1983).14 Asking the
reader to consider each component with regard to creativity, the writer continues:
Individualist cultures value independence, self reliance, and creativity, whereas
collectivist cultures emphasize obedience, cooperation, duty, and acceptance of an
in-group authority
The writer then illustrates the impact of the work ethic of accomplishment and
achievement on fostering creativity in the West. Concerning a work ethic of
accomplishment and achievement, we have already seen how the Western definition
of creativity focuses on tangible creative products. The value placed on being active
and productive should foster creativity as measured by Western standards.
Highlighting few beliefs related to the Western World View, the writer shows
how these beliefs can inspire people to work on improving the World. With regard to
a belief in progress and optimism toward the future, theorists have proposed that
cultures with such beliefs empower people to work on improving the world (Arieti,
1976; Trachtman, 1975). These beliefs imply a cultural acceptance of change, growth,
and movement from the status quo. Those cultures that do not maintain faith in
progress and have a pessimistic view of the future are believed to stifle creativity in
general.15
It can be argued that the Islamic worldview with its main components of:
comprehensive interpretation of worshiping Allah (Ubudiyyah), to establish
civilization on earth (khilafa), the call for doing things with perfection, tastefulness,
competitiveness, and in a complete manner (Ihsan), is an ideal worldview for
promoting creativity. It is a unique worldview, which is misunderstood or
misinterpreted by its followers and opponents as well.
Fate is one of the most important elements in the Islamic Worldview However,
believing in Fate in a positive way is a missing dimension in Muslims beliefs and
practices. Most Muslims fail to understand the Islamic stand with regard to fate. Islam
emphasizes responsibility, planning, and action. It abandons recklessness,
carelessness, and laziness. Though Islam calls for collectivity, unity, obedience and
cooperation; it never neglects, ignores or eliminates individuality.
Cooperation means community solidarity, teamwork, supporting one another
in whatever is good and beneficial but not submitting to the will of others. Islam
safeguarded the practice of this concept positively by making it obligatory to exercise
mutual consultation, giving advice (Nasiha), encouraging what is good and
discouraging what is evil. Obedience means respect and appreciation rather than
authoritarianism. It is the misunderstanding and misinterpretation of these concepts
that cause anti creativity.
14
15

Ibid, p 345.
Ibid.

In addition to varying worldviews and related to the individualismcollectivism dimension, cultures vary on the extent to which they value conformity
and tradition. A few cross-cultural studies show links between levels of conformity or
dogmatism/ open-mindedness and creativity.16
Usually and in most cultures, tradition is preferable to change. Many
individuals value tradition more than the do change. This attitude has a negative
effect on good conceptualization.
Culture can be either unselfconscious or self-conscious. The unselfconscious
culture is tradition oriented, whereas in a self-conscious culture very high value
seems to be placed on innovation.17 The problem arises when individuals become so
universally in favor of tradition that they cannot see the need for and desirability of
change in specific area.18 Another cultural issue, which influences creativity, is
political stability. The more stability there is the more chances for creativity.
Political fragmentation (measured by the prevalence of independent nations), for
example, had a catalyzing effect on creativity across historical periods in Western,
Islamic, and Indian civilizations.19
Islamic contemporary history, after the decline of Othmanite Emperor and a
long period of Western colonization shows a great deal of political instability,
fragmentation, disunity and poverty. This adds to the barriers to creativity in the
Muslim World. It led to migration of thousands of well-educated Muslim intellectuals
and professionals to the West where there is a better chance for living.
Culture can set up people preferences, and thus certain intellectual concepts
and attitudes are favored, Reason, logic, numbers, utility, and practicality are good;
but so, too, are feeling intuition, qualitative judgment, and pleasure especially if you
are conceptualizing. This block against emotion, feeling; pleasure stems from our
puritan heritage and our technology-based culture One cause for this block, which
has complicated matters in the past but is hopefully dying out a little, has been the
assigning of various mental activities and qualities to either the male or the female. In
the past, it has been the female who was to be sensitive, emotional, appreciative of the
fine arts, and intuitive. The male was to be tough, physical, pragmatic, logical, and
professionally productive. Adhering to these constraints severely limits both sexes.20
Arieti proposes nine features that he believes are essential to the creativogenic
society: the availability of culture and certain physical means, openness to cultural
stimuli, stress on becoming not just being, free access to cultural media for all
citizens, without discrimination, freedom, or even moderate discrimination, after
severe oppression or absolute exclusion, exposure to different and even contrasting
cultural stimuli, tolerance for and interest in diverging views, the opportunity for
interaction between significant persons, and the promotion of incentives and awards.21
16

Ibid p.345
Adams: Conceptual Blockbusting. P. 63
18
Ibid p. 64
19
Handbook of Creativity p.346
20
James Adams: Conceptual Blockbusting, 3rd Edition, p. 58
21
John S. Dacey: Fundamentals of creative Thinking, Lexington Books, NY, 1989. pp. 219-220.
17

Educational Barriers
Some researchers relate the lack of creativity in society to education. 22 It is
astonishing to see how many well-known creative people hated school or did poorly
in it. Besides, there is a surprisingly high proportion of very creative adults who had
miserable educational experience.23
Dacey states that schools suppress creativity. 24 He argues that students after
they have attended school for a while become more cautious and less innovative.
Worst of all, they tend to change from being participators to being spectators.25
These researchers assume that appropriate learning conditions can promote at
least some elements of creativity in many if not all children. Universities, schools,
and other education institutions therefore, must promote flexibility, openness for the
new, the ability to adapt or see new ways of doing things, and courage in the face of
the unexpected. It is hoped that this will help people to adapt to a changing world. 26
Early researches show that teachers prefer courteousness, punctuality,
obedience and receptiveness to other peoples (teachers) ideas. In the area of thinking,
high skill in memorization and accurate recall are often preferred to critical thinking
or independent decision making. These researches mention Nigeria and Turkey where
this teacher bias has also been demonstrated.27
Based on my eight years of teaching Creative Thinking subject at IIUM to
students of Kulliyyah of Islamic Revealed Knowledge, and Human Sciences; I
noticed that the students have difficulty in absorbing and visualizing the creative
thinking concepts and skills. This might be due to the teaching methods used in their
previous schools which might prefer spoon feeding approach and usually depend on
memorizing and recalling information from ready to put hands on materials or notes
for final exam. Many of those students fail to read additional recommended materials
and reluctant to do extra exercises even when they encouraged and asked to do so.
Besides, they prefer group over individual assignments, where some of them will be
dependent on the other group members. We cannot blame them rather the culture that
produced such negative intellectual behavior.
Amabile names four methods for what she calls killing childrens creativity in
school. They are namely: evaluation, reward, competition, and restricted choice.
Children who expect frequent teacher evaluation of their work will tend to be less
motivated and creative. If children come to feel that these rewards are the main
22

Arthur, J. Copley: Creativity in Education & Learning, Kogan Page, U.K. 2001. p. 133.
Teresa M. Amabile: Growing up Creative p.89
24
John S. Dacey: Fundemental of Creative Thinking, Lexington Books, 1989. p.200
25
Ibid
26
Copley: p. 135.
27
Copley p. 137.
23

reasons for doing what they do, their creativity will be undermined. Competition
encompasses both evaluation and reward. Competition occurs when people feel that
their performance will be evaluated against the performance of others and that the
best will receive some reward. It is a daily fact of life and, unfortunately, it can
murder creativity. Finally, learning and creativity could not be promoted by force in a
highly restricted environment. It is surprising that most teachers unwittingly
undermine creativity by restricting childrens choice even in areas where they could
allow more autonomy.28
Under Teacher Attitudes Amabile says that Research shows that teachers
orientation toward control can have a significant impact on childrens intrinsic
motivation. In one study, children showed low levels of motivation if their teachers
were controlling, and high levels of motivation if their teachers allowed them more
autonomy. It makes sense, then, to expect that there will be lower levels of creativity
in classrooms with control-oriented teachers.29
Professor Adams holds similar view in this respect, Students from a school
system in which grading is extremely important, and in which the professor or teacher
is an extreme authority figure, sometimes have difficulty in adapting to design
courses. They are often preoccupied with What is the answer? and How do I
ensure that I will get an A? as well they should be, since their background has been
exclusively oriented in such directions. The tragedy is that many foreign countries
that need capable designers and problem-solvers suffer from such blocks. Academic
risk-taking is somewhat of a taboo.30
The problem can be in the way information is processed, Amabile explains, It
is possible, though, for creativity to be stifled by knowledge that is stored in the
wrong way. One of the wrong ways for knowledge to be stored is rote learning, or
memorizing facts without any sense of how they connect to each other. Such
knowledge may be very useful for getting grades on multiple-choice tests, but it will
be nearly useless for turning out truly creative work. 31 Also: Teachers are not the
only creativity killers in school. Children can undermine each others creativity
through pressure to conform.32
According to Dacey, it is deduced from researches that teachers personality
are characterized by authoritarianism. Authoritarian want instant obedience from
those below them... Dominance and subordination are the key factors in life for
them.33 The whole educational system is involved. In addition, the question of why
some school teachers are so authoritarian (and thus anti-creative) still remains. 34
Clearly, some people go into teaching in order to dominate others, and some people
do it in order to help their students to flourish. That there may be more of the former
seems to be evidenced by the decline we see in creative scores the longer children are
28

Teresa M. Amabile: Growing up Creative, The creative Education Foundation, Buffalo, N.Y. 1989
pp. 72-87.
29
Ibid P.87
30
Adams: Conceptual Blockbusting, p. 65
31
Teresa M. Amabile: Growing up Creative, The creative Education Foundation. P.88.
32
Ibid . P.89
33
John S. Dacey: Fundemental of Creative Thinking, Lexington Books, 1989. p.201
34
Ibid. p. 202

10

in school.35 What are parents and teachers to do when their potentially creative
children chafe within the school system? One answer is to try to change that system,
to make it flexible enough to accommodate a variety of learning styles and
interests.36
Teachers should be trained to cultivate creativity in their students. Dacey
reasoned that the teachers inability to cultivate creativity probably results from
deeply learned attitudes and values, and thus it would take substantial time and effort
to overcome these unconscious biases.37 In more recent studies Oral and Guncer
(1993) reported that highly creative children were seen by Turkish teachers as being
belligerent and defiant.38
According to Copley, creativity-fostering teachers are those who:

Encourage students to learn independently;

Have a co-operative, socially integrative style of teaching;
Do not neglect mastery of factual knowledge;
Tolerate sensible or bold errors;
Promote self-evaluation;
Take questions seriously;
Offer opportunities to work with varied materials under different conditions;
Help students learn to cope with frustration and failure;
Reward courage as much as being right.39

One of the strategies to enhance students' thinking in the West is to teach

thinking skills to students. However, the most important strategy in my opinion was
to infuse creative and critical thinking in both classroom and Curricula. The 8th.
International Conference on Thinking was dedicated to promote this mission in
Singapore June 1997. Moreover, too many books were published for the same
purpose. Among the good ones that I came across is, "Techniques for Teaching
Thinking" by Arthur Costa and Lawrence Lowery.40
In their book, Costa and Lowery emphasize the importance of structuring
classroom for thinking, teacher-initiated questions and directions that elicit thinking
and learning, teacher response behaviors that support and extend thinking and
learning, and using thoughtful language in the classroom.
In structuring classroom for thinking, it is of extreme importance that lecturers
need to be aware of individual differences where different students need different
classroom organizational patterns, "Some students learn best individually; some learn
in groups." Not only that but also in terms of noise and quite, degree of the light,
formal and informal settings, the need to move or to be stationary, less able students
35

Ibid p.202
Teresa M. Amabile: Growing up Creative p. 90
37
John S. Dacey: Fundemental of Creative Thinking, Lexington Books, 1989. p.207.
38
Copley p. 137
39
Copley: Creativity in Education p. 138, and more details on fostering creativity in classroom pp. 147150.
40
Midwest Publications, 1989. CA. U.S.A.
36

11

do better in highly structured learning situations where direct help is generous while
more able students profit from less structured situations.41
Teachers can cause the students to think by carefully designing the syntax of
questions and statements. The teacher's manner of responding to students influence
their development of self-concepts, their attitudes toward learning, their
achievements, and their classroom rapport; greater than the teacher's questioning or
directions.42 The authors encourage what they call Open Responses such as waiting
for one or two seconds after having asked a question before they call on another
student, ask another question, or give the answer to the question themselves; being
non-evaluative and non-judgmental by passively or empathetically accepting students'
responses, ideas, behavior or feeling; and by asking students to clarify their responses
by seeking more information.43
The authors stress the fact that is central to the development of an individual's
cognition. Thus teachers must learn how to embed in their everyday classroom
language opportunities for students to hear cognitive terminology and be presented
with day-to-day challenges to think.44
Environmental Barriers
Professor Adams states that, all ideas require an environment that will
produce the support necessary to bring them to fruition. 45 Adams gives an account of
what are the main elements of an environment that encourages creativity by saying
that an atmosphere of honesty, trust, and support is absolutely necessary if most
people are to make the best of their conceptual abilities.46 He explains that:
Most people are not happy with criticism and, to make matters worse, are
somewhat unsure of the quality of their own ideas. They therefore, require a
supportive environment in which to work. One of our most serious problems
with students in design classes is that they hesitate to expose ideas about
which they are unsure, not only to the faculty, but also to each other. Since
many of their creative ideas fall into this not-sure category they hesitate to
reveal them. We have to convert the class into a friendly, non- competitive,
interactive situation in which people will take the risk of exposing their most
impractical ideas to each other. Competition and lack of trust destroy such
supportive environment47
Bringing ideas to action is even more difficult and harder job in a non
supportive environment according to Professor Adams. He considers that lack of
physical, economic, organizational support to bring ideas into action is also another
common problem. New ideas are typically hard to bring into action. A great amount
of effort is involved in perfecting an idea and then selling it. Many conceptual
41

Ibid. p. 15
Ibid pp. 33-34.
43
Ibid pp. 41-45.
44
Ibid. p. 53
45
Adams, James, Conceptual Blockbusting, 3rd Edition P.69
42

46
47

James Adams: Conceptual Blockbusting, 3rd Edition, p. 67.

Ibid P.68.

12

breakthroughs in science, for instance, have taken years of work to validate to the
point where they would elicit interest from others in the scientific community. Even
after the idea is fleshed out into a believable and complete form, it must be sold to an
often skeptical world. This may require money and time. In addition, he concludes:
Lack of patronage is a very effective environment block." 48
How to create an environment that kills innovation and creativity? Many
authorities intentionally or unintentionally demoralize employees and do not welcome
or appreciate new ways of doing things: Professor Patricia (1998)49 has listed the
following factors:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)

Negative attitude toward ideas that come from below

Too many approval levels (too many hierarchical authority).
Traditional recognition.
We know every thing attitude.
I think you do attitude.
Do as I say, not as I do.
Loafing attitudes, loafers are parasites; they take the advantages of other work.

It can be concluded that what applies to one community in this respect, applies
to others as well, even though cultures may vary in terms of degree of those barriers.
It can be said that in the Muslim World the situation is even worst.
Views of Contemporary Muslim Scholars
In this part, I will be introducing the views of three contemporary scholars
regarding the revival or reforming the Islamic Thought. These scholars are from
different regions of the Muslim World. One is from the subcontinent, another from
the Western part of the Muslim World, and the third from the Eastern part
respectively. It is so amazing and interesting that these scholars looked at the situation
of Muslims from different angles and aspects, as we will see later in this paper. This
lead us to treat their views as complementary views.
A.

The view of Muhammad Iqbal

Iqbal, holds a similar view of Edward de Bono and other Western intellectuals where
they considers philosophy and the dominance of critical thinking as a contributing
factor to hindering creativity. Iqbal states:
While Greek philosophy very much broadened the outlook of Muslim
thinkers, it, on the whole, obscured their vision of the Quran. Socrates
concentrated his attention on the human world alone. To him the proper study
of man was man and not the world of plants, insects, and stars. How unlike the
spirit of the Quran, which sees in the humble bee a recipient of Divine
inspiration and constantly calls upon the reader to observe the perpetual
48
49

Ibid P. 69
Patricia Digh. (1998). The Next Challenge: Holding People Accountable. Human Resource

Magazine. pp. 60-70.

13

change of winds, the alteration of day and night, the clouds, the starry
heavens, and the planets swimming through infinite space! As a true disciple
of Socrates, Plato despised sense-perception which, in his view, yielded mere
opinion and no real knowledge. How unlike the Quran, which regards
'hearing' and 'sight' as the most valuable Divine gifts and declares them to be
accountable to God for their activity in this world. This is what the earlier
Muslim students of the Quran completely missed under the spell of classical
speculation. They read the Quran in the light of Greek thought. It took them
over two hundred years to perceive though not quite clearly that the spirit
of the Quran was essentially anti-classical, and the result of this perception
was a kind of intellectual revolt, the full significance of which has not been
realized even up to the present day.50
Even if the emergence of certain sects was to defend Islam, however, by using
the Greek weapons to do so led to negative attitudes. "On the whole, the object of the
Asharite movement was simply to defend orthodox opinion with the weapons of
Greek dialectic. The Mutazilah, conceiving religion merely as a body of doctrines
and ignoring it as a vital fact, took no notice of non-conceptual modes of approaching
Reality and reduced religion to a mere system of logical concepts ending in a purely
negative attitude."51
This caused many Muslim thinkers not being aware of the main purpose of the
Quran and fail to maintain the Islamic Civilization and its contribution to science. He
states, "The main purpose of the Quran is to awaken in man the higher consciousness
of his manifold relations with God and the universe." After quoting many verses from
the Quran, he deduces that:
The point of these verses is that man is endowed with the faculty of naming
things, that is to say, forming concepts of them, and forming concepts of them
is capturing them. Thus, the character of man's knowledge is conceptual, and
it is with the weapon of this conceptual knowledge that man approaches the
observable aspect of Reality. The one noteworthy feature of the Quran is the
emphasis that it lays on this observable aspect of Reality." Having quoted few
other verses he continues: "No doubt, the immediate purpose of the Quran in
this reflective observation of Nature is to awaken in man the consciousness of
that which Nature is regarded a symbol. But the point to note is the general
empirical attitude of the Quran which engendered in its followers a feeling of
reverence for the actual and ultimately made them the founders of modern
science.52
B.

The view of Malik Bennabi

Bennabi who is one of the most well known contemporary Muslim intellectuals
discussed the issue of how Islam encouraged thinking as a response to the Orient
lists misconceptions- by asking the following question: We should inquire whether
the Quran was able to bring about in the Muslim society an environment suitable for
50

Allama Muhammad Iqbal: The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam. 2nd. Edition. Institute
of Islamic Culture, Lahore. 1989. p. 3
51
Ibid p. 4.
52
Ibid p. 11.

14

the scientific spirit and to spark of the psychological impetus necessary for the
acquiring and disseminating knowledge?53 According to Bennabi the answer to that
question is: The Quran was definitely able to create a new intellectual atmosphere
conducive to the progress of different disciplines of sciences.54
Malik Bennabi has another significant input regarding tafakkur that is the
need for generating ideas in a society as a prerequisite for civilization. Lack in ideas
leads to disasters and the decline of progress. He asserts: We must consider the
following truth: what befalls a society at critical turning points of its history is not the
paucity of its material objects but the poverty of its ideas.55
It is as if Malik anticipated the challenges of globalization faced by Muslims
today when he pointed out that a society can never build its own progress with
imported neither with imposed ideas by saying: A society that does not create its
fundamental ideas cannot produce what it needs for consumption nor it can produce
what it needs for its industry.
A society will never build itself by imported ideas or by ideas imposed on it
from outside.56 It has to be noted that these quotations on the realm of ideas are
related to Bennabis view concerning cultural reconstruction and civilizational
renaissance. According to him each nation aiming at achieving civilizational
renaissance should have its own ideas and essential values which are extracted and
based on its cultural resources and principles related to all life endeavors. In that,
regard El-Mesawi states:
Bennabi considers that each society has a set of core or master ideas which
constitute the centre of polarization for its vital energies. Thanks to the
creative rapport, which a society establishes with its master ideas, it is able to
produce what Bennabi calls expressed ideas. The function of this category of
ideas is to project the master ideas in different spheres of life, thus ensuring
the societys cultural authenticity and continuity in history as well as its ability
to cope with the circumstances of its historical development. Conversely,
human societys disintegration and cultural degeneration results from the
break-up of such creative rapport in such a manner that its expressed ideas
become mere ersatz (PI: 48/45) or dead ideas (ibid, 556/2) whose damaging
impact is aggravated by the intrusion of deadly ideas. In Bennabis frame of
analysis, deadly ideas are those ideas which are borrowed from a different
civilizational context and which are not subjected to any process of critical
and creative adaptation and assimilation according to the societys archetypes
or master ideas (ibid., 129L125).57
C.

The View of Professor Abdul Karim Bakkar

Mlik Bin Nan: Intaju al-Mustshriqn, (Cairo: Maktabat Amr, 1970), p.34
Ibid p.37
55
Ibid p. 27
56
Ibid p. 62
57
Mohamed Tahir El-Mesawi: A Muslim Theory of Human Society; an investigation into the
sociological thought of Malik Bennabi (Malaysia, 1998, Thinkers Library SDN BHD), pp. 157-158.
For more insights on this issue see pp. 125-129.
53
54

15

According to Professor Bakkar, one of the contemporary prominent and well versed
linguist and educator in order to overcome contemporary challenges there are two
main tasks: the task of dealing properly with the Islamic Heritage, and the task of
dealing properly with the Western thought. The right approach in dealing with the
Islamic Heritage can be summarized as the following:

To exploit the rich experience, methods, and models of our Heritage that can
help us to regulate our contemporary affairs and building Islamic civilization.
To be inspired, enlightened, and motivated by its great events and lofty
experiences to pursue great achievements. Attention should be drawn to the
essence rather than to forms and temporary systems of its Heritage.
To transcend what was fulfilling immediate needs, what reflected a temporary
crisis, what was a wrong response, what was due to wrong planning, or a
misinterpretation of Islam, or an outcome of an atomomistic view to certain
issues and problems.
To draw lessons from both success and shortcomings that existed in our
Heritage in order to avoid repeating the same pitfalls that led this Umaah to
relinquish its leading position.
To analyze and critically evaluate an inherited experience overburdened with
so many severe problems.

At the other end, the Islamic thought experiences extreme pressures imposed
by other cultures that created cotemporary civilizations. Most Muslim intellectuals
made an effort to reconcile between both Islamic and Western Thoughts. This took
different forms, where at one end we have the elimination of major portions of our
Heritage, and the call for Islamization of knowledge at the other end.
These approaches assumes that what we are trying to cope with is stable, and
the derived concepts and premises from our Heritage and civilization are final. Hence,
the attempt to reconcile both paradigms. Both assumptions are wrong. Culture as a
whole, is complicated and it is a mix of principles, circumstances, development,
symbols, challenges and various balances which does not accept integration in its
deep structures level.
What we need to do to step over our present situation is to establish a creative
status that integrates past experiences and contemporary challenges and needs within
one cultural frame which is extracted from the divine method and our significant
Heritage and civilization which in turn enables us to produce new cultural forms and
models that fulfill our needs and aims and set at the same time a universal models for
others to emulate and follow.58
Conclusion
The paper discussed compared and analyzed the external barriers to creativity
in both Western and Muslim societies. Culture has a strong influence on the way
people think. It may hinder creativity and become an obstacle. One way to overcome
this barrier in Muslim world is to promote the good understanding of the Islamic
Abdul Karim Bakkar: Min Ajli Inilaqa ariyah Shmilah, (Riya, 1415 AH, Darul
Muslim) pp. 36-42, 127-128.
58

16

Worldview which highly encourages creativity. Educational system is another area

that requires more attention to turn it into a motivating factor towards producing
creative students. Furthermore, it is necessary to build an encouraging environment
for supporting and fostering creative efforts in the Muslim communities.
There is an agreement among Muslim scholars that the Muslim Ummah is
encountering many contemporary challenges most of which are related to culture,
education and environment and provided specific strategies and means to overcome
these challenges. It is the responsibility of the Educational and Intellectual Institutions
in the Muslim World to pick up these insights and ideas and work on them to bring
them about and turning them into realities as an effort to improve the Muslim World
and take a step towards reforming the Islamic civilization.

17

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Gary stresses in his book (Creativity For Ever): Addison-Wesley, USA, 1974,
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2.

Gary Davis: Barriers to Creativity and Creative Attitudes, Encyclopedia of

Creativity, 1999, ACADEMIC PRESS, vol.1. p. 165.

3.

Handbook of Creativity pp.340-341

4.

Jamal Badi and Mustapha Tajdin: Creative Thinking: An Islamic Perspective.

IIUM Research Centre Publications. June 2004.

5.

James Adams: Conceptual Blockbusting, 3rd Edition, p. 58.

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John S. Dacey: Fundamentals of creative Thinking, Lexington Books, NY,

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7.

Arthur, J. Copley: Creativity in Education & Learning, Kogan Page, U.K.

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8.

Teresa M. Amabile: Growing up Creative, The creative Education

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9.

Copley: Creativity in Education p. 138, and more details on fostering

creativity in classroom pp. 147-150.

10.

Adams, James, Conceptual Blockbusting, 3rd Edition P.69

11.

Patricia Digh. (1998). The Next Challenge: Holding People Accountable.

Human Resource Magazine. pp. 60-70.

12.

Allama Muhammad Iqbal: The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam.

2nd. Edition. Institute of Islamic Culture, Lahore. 1989. p. 3

13.

Mlik Binnab: Intju al-Mustshriqn, (Cairo: Maktabat Amr, 1970),

p.34

14.

Mohamed Tahir El-Mesawi: A Muslim Theory of Human Society; an

investigation into the sociological thought of Malik Bennabi (Malaysia, 1998,
Thinkers Library SDN BHD), pp. 157-158. For more insights on this issue
see pp. 125-129.

15.

Abdul Karim Bakkar: Min Ajli Inilaqa ariyah Shmilah, (Riya, 1415
AH, Darul Muslim)

18